Climate activists tried to disrupt the annual general meeting of the French energy giant Total on Friday, they also wanted to storm the congress building. There were also clashes with the police. They also used tear gas and batons.
“What I experience here on the street, I have never experienced in Germany. That tear gas is used in huge quantities against people who protest peacefully with their hands raised,” said German climate activist Luisa Neubauer. Specifically, they protested against a planned oil pipeline in East Africa. They want to call on shareholders to stop financing fossil fuels and pull out of the project, said Ugandan environmentalist Patience Nabukalu of Fridays for Future of the German news agency in Paris. “Total is a climate killer for us.” Neubauer told lenders: “Banks that even use the word sustainability need funding fundamentally exclude this group.”
Pipeline project endangers rare animals
At the beginning of last year, the billion-dollar oil production project in Uganda and Tanzania was launched. Total has the largest share in the project with approximately 57 percent. Also involved are the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) with a stake of about 28 percent and the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) with about 15 percent. According to Total, the total investment volume is around ten billion dollars (around 9.3 billion euros).
Environmentalists have been calling for some time not to fund the project. They are afraid of the pollution of Ugandan lakes and the destruction of the habitats of rare animal species. Greenpeace, Attac and Extinction Rebellion had called for the protest in Paris. In the end, Total’s annual general meeting took place as planned.
Source: Krone
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